"DON'T POISON ME HERE I AM NOT COMFORTABLE WITH YOU" GOV Nyako Tells Gov Orji

A mild drama  however  played out at the National Council of State Meeting yesterday when Governor Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State openly, though jokingly, expressed fear that his Abia State counterpart, Chief Theodore Orji, might poison him. According to the sitting arrangement at the venue which is in alphabetical order, the two

governors always sat  side-by-side. They both belonged to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party until late last year when Nyako and four other PDP governors  defected to the All Progressives Congress. No sooner had they taken their seats than Nyako  declared openly that he was not comfortable with Orji sitting beside him. He threatened that his people would drag the Abia State governor to court if anything untoward happened to him. At a point, he requested the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator Anyim   Pius Anyim, to change his seat. Orji, amidst smiles, however wondered why he would decide to poison his colleague now after many years of being together.

The following conversation ensued between them;

Nyako: I am telling you, don’t poison me here. I am not comfortable with you here. If anything happens to me here, walahi, my people will take you to court.

Orji: For how many years have we been sitting together? Is it this zero hour that I would poison you?

Nyako: Who knows?

When Governor Martins Elechi approached Nyako, the Adamawa State governor again said,  “I am just warning him not to poison me. Is there any law that says we should sit down together?

The council, which has the constitutional duty  of advising the President in the exercise of his powers with respect to national census, prerogative of mercy, award of national honours, the Independent National Electoral Commission, the National Judicial Council  and the National Population Commission, has President Goodluck Jonathan as chairman, and his deputy, Namadi Sambo, as deputy chairman. 

The council is made up of all former Presidents and Heads of Government, all former Chief Justices of Nigeria,  the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives,  all the 36 state governors,  and    the Attorney-General of the Federation. However,  Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, ex-Head of State, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari; and Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, were absent from Tuesday’s  National Council of State meeting in the Presidential Villa, Abuja.